By Henna Achhpal and Abhinn Shreshtha
As the nation prepares to go to the polls, MTV hosted a couple of interactive sessions for students and first-time voters, to address their natural cynicism towards voting. Carried out under the ‘Rock The Vote’ umbrella, an initiative that has been going on for the last few months, the event held at Canvas Laugh Factory, Mumbai had two panel discussions where students could discuss their concerns about voting and politics with experts. While the first panel saw leading youth influencers discuss matters of national importance in the face of the 16th Lok Sabha elections, in the second discussion, youngsters had the opportunity to interact with party representatives first hand. The discussions ranged from why the youth should vote to each party’s agenda for the future of the country’s young, women’s safety to anti-corruption measures. Some fingers were pointed and several misconceptions cleared but the platform truly put the politicians in the line of fire.
The panelists in the first session were Aditya Swamy, Channel Head of MTV India, ace adman Bobby Pawar, bestselling author Ira Trivedi, restaurateur and entrepreneur Anup Gandhi and Rishi Jaitly, Head of India for Twitter. The session was moderated by MTV’s VJ José Covaco, more popularly known by his screen name, Hoezay
RISHI JAITLY
“Twitter has seen a 600 per cent increase in conversations around politics and elections in the last one year. I remember a girl was being taken to jail and she tweeted about it. The tweet was retweeted thousands of times. There are leaders who are listening. If you look at the way leaders are responding to individual tweets, there is reason to be optimistic.”
ADITYA SWAMY
“Politics is one of the ‘cool’ things this year. There has been a shift in conversations towards the younger generation due to changes in technology and the way we communicate. The youth has become more powerful as an influencer. Historically, the young have always been at the centre of change in most democracies. It probably did not happen in India because of social reasons but that is changing now.”
BOBBY PAWAR
“I cannot sell you the idea of voting. I can make you aware of it. It is not unlike religion. If you believe in it strongly then you need to go out and talk to a few people and spread the message. We see memes and jokes on social media which shows that youth are interested in politics, but just putting up stuff on Facebook and Twitter is not going to change things.”
ANUP GANDHI
“I see a lot of young people wanting an autocratic ruler. If they want this, they have to go out and vote for a person who will do things for them. Instead of pointing fingers and complaining, just find solutions for things around you. There is a fear among the youth that their efforts will not result in any change. The sooner this fear goes away, the better.”
IRA TRIVEDI
“I have read a lot about manifestos that parties are releasing but I believe that most parties do not really keep these promises. When I cast my vote, I don’t do it for a Modi, Rahul Gandhi or Kejriwal; I do it for my ideals. It is not necessarily a bad thing to have a powerful personality as the figurehead of a political party.”
The second panel featured Shaina NC, the first woman treasurer of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Maharashtra; Meera Sanyal, Aam Aadmi Party’s candidate from the Mumbai South constituency and former CEO and Chairperson of Royal Bank of Scotland; and Sanjay Jha, National Spokesperson of the Indian National Congress. The session was moderated by Dhiraj Nayyar, CEO of Think India and Editor at- large, firstpost.com.
SHAINA NC
“It is important to vote because you cannot criticize or ask questions if you do not vote. If the educated class and predominantly the youth want to be a vote bank, it starts with that single vote – to exercise your right, to speak your mind and you will eventually have better candidates too.”
MEERA SANYAL
“I don’t think I need to persuade these young kids. It’s very binary, you either believe that you stand for something or you don’t and you will make that choice. I don’t think anybody here needs to persuade you about that. If you think it stands for something, then go and vote. Social media has been a great leveller for us as we don’t have big budgets like the other parties.”
SANJAY JHA
“I don’t think the strategy of social media should be to attract voters. The primary purpose is to reach out – you have to be out there, communicate and let people know what you stand for. It is a fantastic platform for any political party – the medium is available, interactive, goes viral and gives you reach. Between all that noise and banter, there are great ideas flowing in there.”
